014 079 438 7 ^ 



74 
= 84 S5 
spy 1 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 



Read at the 



200th ANNIVERSARY 



of 



THE TOWN OF PLYMPTON, 



AUGUST 8, 1907, 



by 



JOHN SHERMAN. 



\ 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 



Read at the 



200th ANNIVERSARY 



of 



THE TOWN OF PLYMPTON, 



AUGUST 8, 1907, 



by 



JOHN SHERMAN. 






Q f>' 






Gift 



V\JUS'.1V\.0-vw<>s-i^ ^^.TVoru-oli 



?9 0CT19IO 






HISTORICAL ADDRESS 



Tiie Indian name for Plympton was Winnetuxet. The first 
settlements were made between 1670 and 1680. 

It was originally a part of Plyrnouth and so remained until 
1695, when the number of families in the western part of the 
old to'mi had increased to 45, and the difficulty of attending pub- 
lic worship had become so serious that a petition was sent to the 
General Court for the incorporation of a new precinct. There 
was some opposition by the old toAvn, but notwithstanding, the 
result was that the prayer of the petitioners was granted and 
a portion of the western part of the old town, containing thirty- 
six thousand, five hundred and six acres was set apart and in- 
corporated as the western precinct of Plymouth. This western 
precinct was incorporated into a town by act of the General Court, 
June 4, 1707, by the name of Plympton. 

The first to\v-n meeting was held in March, 1708, when Wil- 
liam ShurtlelT was chosen Town Clerk, and Caleb Loring, Sam- 
uel Sturtevant and Benoni Lucas were chosen selectmen. 

One of the first acts of the new town was relating to schools ; 
and the selectmen were instructed to hire a schoolmaster, and 
this vote was repeated for a number of 3'ears. 

At a town meeting held in February, 1709, the selectmen re- 
ported a list of 65 inhabitants qualified to vote in town meetings. 

At a town meeting held at Plvmouth, March 16, 1702, it was 
voted that thirl y acres of land be laid forth for the use of the 
ministry in the upper Society, and a conveniency for a burying 
place and training place as near the meeting house as may be con- 
venient. 

This thirty acres was laid out April 23, 1702, by William 
Shurtleff and Samuel Sturtevant, surveyors. 

This thirty six thousand, five himdred and six acres of land 
remained intact until 1 726, when thirteen hundred and six acres 
were annexed to the new town of Kingston, incorporated that 
year. 

In 1734, five thousand, nine himdred and ninety-four acres 



— 4- 

were taken by the act incorporating the town of Halifax and 
made a part of the new town, and subsequently in 1831 another 
slice of four hundred and ninety-seven acres was annexed to 
the town of Hnlifax. 

In 1731 the inhabitants of the southern part of the town pe- 
titioned the General Court to be set ofF as a separate precinct 
to be Icnown as the southern precinct of Plympton. 

That petition ^ab granted with the provision that the peti- 
tioners pay one third part of the aged and Eev. Isaac Cushman's 
salary during hi.- life, and that the ministerial lands belonging 
to the old town, shall still solely remain to them, and the new 
precinct to have none of the issues and profits thereof. In 1790, 
June 9th, this tract of land, comprising twenty thousand and 
seventy-five acres, was incorporated as a town by the name of 
Carver. 

By these several cessions of land the territory of the town of 
Plympton has been reduced to eight thousand, six hundred and 
thirty-four acres. 

CHURCH BUILDINGS. 

The first meeting house in Plympton was probably built some- 
time between 1695 and before the Rev. Isaac Cushman was or- 
dained, which was Oct. 27, 1698; and stood on the common or 
green opposite the lane that leads eastward down to the dwell- 
ing house of Benjamin Soule, what is now better known as the 
"Terry Place." 

This meeting house becoming too small to accommodate the 
increasing number of attendants, was sold to Mr. Benjamin 
Soule, who took it away and converted it into a bam, and the 
town voted, Sept. 16, 1714, to build the second meeting house, 
which was used for public worship in the year 1716. 

This second meeting house stood on the green opposite where 
Union Hall now stands. It fronted the south and had three out- 
side doors. 

It was quite a large meeting house, as it must of necessity 
have been, considering that the people living in the present 
limits of Plympton, and all of Carver, about three-fourths of 
Halifax, and a part of Kingston, up to 1726, attended meeting 
here. 

The walls on the inside Avere plastered, but it was not plaster- 
ed overhead and there was no garret floor. It was taken down 
in 1772, after haAnng been used for a meeting house 56 years. 



\ 



-5— 

The third nieeling house in Plynipton was built in 1772. 
There was some contention as to where it should be located, and 
it was finally left to a committee from some of the neighboring 
towns to lix a place; and the said committee, after viewing the 
town, decided to locate it on the green or common, about 12 rods 
north of the old one and about where the Soldier's Monument 
now stands. It fronted the west, and was 57 feet long and 45 
feet wide. The pulpit was on the east side of the house. It had 
45 pews ou the lower floor and twenty-six in the galleries. This 
third meeting house was plastered throughout and overhead. 

It had fifty windows. Each wall pew had a window. It had 
no steeple and no bell. This house was taken down in the spring 
of 18o0, having been used for the purposes of a meeting house 
fifty-eight years. The town meetings were also held in the meet- 
ing house up to this time. 

In the years 1828 and 1829 the first Parish in Plympton was 
much divided in opinion as to repairing the then meeting house 
or to building a new one. 

A m.ajorif^y of the Parish was in favor of building a new one, 
but the difference in opinion as to where it should be located 
was so great that nofhing was done. But in the winter of 1829- 
30, a sufficient number of subscribers were obtained through the 
efforts of I)ea. Cephas Bumpus. for the building a new meeting 
house in forty-eight shares, and it was decided to locate it on a 
lot given by Jonathan Parker, Esq., opposite the green near the 
burial groimd. These proprietors bought the old meeting house 
for $652, which was the appraisal made by disinterested parties 
from out of to^\Ti. 

The contractor was Mr. WHiittemore Peterson, of Duxbury, at 
a cost of $3,364, cost of bell, $386 ; total, $3,750. 

This meeting house was completed and dedicated, Wednesday, 
Sept. 29, 1830 ; at which time eight hundred people were present, 
and the bell was rung for the meeting, it being the first time a 
bell was ever rung in Plympton for a religious meeting. Octo- 
ber 3, 1830, was the first time a meeting was held in the new 
meeting house on the Sabbath, and at which time, more than 
two hundred and sixty persons were present. 

Some time during the summer of 1856 this meeting house 
was struck by lightning and damaged to a considerable extent, 
after which it whs repaired, remodelled on the inside, and a new 
spire and other repairs on the outside. 

In 1838 some fire stoves were placed in the vestry and Dec. 



-6- 

33, 183.S, was the first Sabbath that ever a meeting house in 
Plyniptor was warmed by a fire stove. 

Some few years ago through the liberality of Mrs. Pierce, of 
Midclle})oro, other alterations and repairs were made on the out- 
side of this meeting house. 

The Rev. Isaac Cushman, the first minister in Plympton, was 
ordained October 37, 1698, he having preached some three years 
before lie was ordained. 

He died in Plympton, October 31, 1733. 

His dwelling house stood forty-fiA^e and one third rods north 
of the burial place and fourteen rods east of the road. 

Eev. Jonathan Parker, the second minister in Plympton, was 
ordained December 33, 1731, as colleague with Mr. Cushman. 
His ndnistry continued up to the time of his death, which oc- 
curred April 24, 1776, a period of nearly forty-five years. 

His dwelling house stood on the west side of the road, on the 
site on which the house of the late Gilbert H. Randall now 
stands, and which was torn down within the memory of many 
of us. 

Rev. Ezra Sampson, the third minister in Plympton, was or- 
dained Ferbruary 15, 1775, and was dismissed by the town, at his 
request April 4, 1796, after twenty-one years. 

His dwellmg house stands on the east side of the green, op- 
posite this church, and that and one acre of land for a house lot 
were given to him by the Parish for a settlement. 

Rev. Ebenezer Withington, the fourth minister in Plympton, 
was ordained J;inuf;ry 31, 1798, and was dismissed July 31, 1801. 

Rev. John Briggs, the fifth minister, was installed December 
3, 1801, and resigned June 39, 1807. 

The Parish gave him one acre of land on the west side of the 
green, on which he built the house now owned and occupied by 
Mrs. Emily Walton. 

Rev. Elijali Dexter, the sixth minister, was ordained January 
18, 1809, and resigned in April, 1851, after a ministry of forty- 
two years. He died October 10, 1851. 

He bought the dwelling housp of the Rev. John Briggs, where 
he lived during the first part of his ministry here and where the 
Rev. Henry M. Dexter was born. He afterward exchanged this 
place fo: the one he occupied during the latter part of his min- 
istry and where he died. Now owned and occupied by the heirs 
of the late Ephraim Fuller. 

For the most of the time up to the year 1837, the town and 



precinct or parish acted together as one, and the two were identi- 
cal. Ihe town settled the ministers, appropriated their salaries 
and built and kept in repair their churches. In that year, on the 
16th day oi April, the town in its parochial capacity reorganized 
as the First Parish of Plympton, under the laws then in force, 
and became distinct from the town in its municipal capacity. 

It began to be foimd very difficult to collect the parish taxes 
without co?npulsion and no parish tax was made after 1833, and 
what money was raised was secured by voUmtary subscription. 
In 1843, the embarrassments of the parish became so great that 
it was voted to sell the parsonage land for the payment of the 
arrearages and other necessary expenses, which was done by 
leave of the General Court passed in 1844. Thus passed out of 
the hands of the parisl;, the whole grant made by the town of 
Pl3TU0uth, exce])t what was given for a burial ground and train- 
ing place ; two acres having been previously given for houselots 
to the Ecv. Ezra Sampson and the Eev. John Briggs. 

The land devoted to a burying place contains one acre, three 
quarters, and twenty-two rods. 

At a meeting held by the inhabitants of the New Society in 
the Western Precinct of Plymouth on the 30th day of May, 
1706, said inhabitants did agree with Benjamin Soule and Isaac 
Cushman to clear one acre of the land that lieth for the burying 
place and subdue it for four pounds, and to have it offset in the 
Minister's rate yearly till they are paid. 

This burying place was the only one in the okl town used for 
the burial of the dead, except one small one at the north, for 
about one hundred and fifty years. 

The Green contains about three acres, three quarters and twen- 
ty-eight rods. This includes the highway lying along the west- 
erly side also. 

A part of the green was originally fenced on the westerly side, 
and the Eev. Jonathan Parker improved a field thereon, extend- 
ing from the burying ground nearly to where the soldier's monu- 
ment now stands. 

His barn also stood in this field on the westerly side near the 
fence. 

The fence of this field was taken away in 1776 and that barn 
was moved across the road on to the Eev. Mr. Parker's lot. 

Beside the first three meeting houses which stood on the green, 
the first school house, of which we have any record, also stood 
near the southerly end of the green, opposite the lot on which in 



-8- 

after time the dwelling house of the Eev. John Briggs was built. 
That school house fronted the south, it was not ceiled nor plaster- 
ed, and had a garret iloor laid with loose boards and pretty 
large cracks between them. 

On the east side of the green and south of the lane that leads 
do^wTi to the "Terry Place" was a row of large trees, two white 
oaks and four red oaks. On the west side of the green and with- 
in the small triangle formed by the road coming from Dunham's 
Neck, and the road running north and south, there was a very 
large red oak tree. 

Some time after the Eevolntion these trees were cut down. 

On the east side of the green, and near where the dwelling 
house of Mrs. William S. Soule now stands, there were a AAHiip- 
ping Post and Stocks, but there is no record of any person ever 
being publicly whipped. 

It was tlie custom of the people of Plympton, before they had 
a minister, to attend meeting at Plymouth and men and women 
went thither on foot. It is related that one time there was a 
wedding at Plymouth, where the bride belonged, and the bride- 
groom belonged in Barnstable. 

He walked to Plymouth and some others with him, among 
whom was a young woman. After the marriage was sol- 
emnized, that young woman requested the company to excuse 
her absence, for she wanted to Just step over to Middleboro and 
see Cousin Patience, and that she would return next day and 
join then on their return to Barnstable. 

She walked from Barnstable to Plymouth, and then to Middle- 
boro, besides attending the wedding at Plymouth. 

Before and during the revolutionary war the attitude of the 
people of Plympton was that of intense loyalty to the patriot 
cause. 

In the year 1T74, the year before the Av^ar of the revolution 
commenced, a Liberty Pole was erected where the second meet- 
ing house stood. 

The main shaft of this Liberty Pole was hewed into squares 
and was more than one foot in diameter. 

It had braces from the cross sills which were in the groimd up 
to the main shaft, about five or six feet from the groimd. A 
slate stone in the shape of a heart, with an inscription on it was 
fastened a little above the braces, the import of which was that 
"Liberty was much at heart." 

At a town meeting held July 11, 1774, it was voted not to pur- 



-9— 

chase or consume any goods of any kind imported from Great 
Britain, after the first day of October next, until our liberties are 
restored, by a vote of 97 to 15. And at a meeting, after some 
debate respecting signing a printed paper presented to the town, 
they judged it most prudent to choose a committee to take under 
consideration the disturbed state of the public affairs; upon 
which they chose the following men : — Capt. Geo. Bryant, Capt. 
Seth Gushing, Mr. William Ripley, Dea. Samuel Lucas, Dea. 
Thomas Savery, Mr. Benjamin Shurtleff and Mr. Josiah Pork- 
ins, as a committee to make their report at the time to which 
this meeting shall be adjourned, as to what method was most 
prudent for this town to come into relative to the public affairs 
of this Province, and adjourned to the first Monday in August 
next, at one of the clock in the afternoon ; and there met, and 
the committee being present made their report which was unani- 
mously accepted and is as followeth. — We, the undersigned, be- 
ing chose as a committee to take under consideration the pre- 
carious state and dangerous situation in which tlie public affairs 
of this Province are now under, and which threaten great distress 
through all the colonies upon the continent. 

In the first place we recommend it unto all to be deeply- 
humble before God, under a deep sense of the very aggravated 
sins which abound in the land in this day of our calamity, which^ 
is the foundation cause of all the sorrows and calamities that 
we feel or fear, and repent and turn to God with our whole 
hearts, and then we may humbly hope that God will graciously 
be pleased to return unto us and appear for our deliverance and 
save us from the distress we are now laboring under, and pre- 
vent heavier calamities coming upon us. 

We also recommend to this town by no means to be concern- 
ed in purchasing or consuming any goods imported from Great 
Britain after the first day of October next, and until our griev- 
ances are removed, and in regard to entering into combination 
respecting purchasing goods imported from Great Britain, we 
humbly conceive it would be very imprudent to act anything of 
that nature until the result of the Congress shall be made pub- 
lic ; and upon the report, thereof we advise the town to be very 
active in pursuing the most regular method in order to promote 
the good of the public, and the flourishing state of the same. 
Capt. George Br\^ant, Capt. Seth Gushing, Mr. William Ripley, 
Dea. Samuel Lucas, Dea. Thomas Savery, Mr. Benjamin Shurt- 
leff, Mr. Josiah Perkins. 



—10— 

It was also voted that the whole proceedings of the town be 
transmitted to the Town Clerk of Boston, and that the com- 
mittee that made these reports should remain as a committee, 
upon which the town added six men, viz : — Mr. Darius Magoun, 
Mr. Isaiah Cushman, Mr. James Harlow, Mr. John Brigham, Mr. 
John Shaw, Jr., Mr. Isaac Churchill to consider the result of 
the Congress when it shall be made public, and make report to 
the town what may be most prudent for the town to do respect- 
ing public affairs. 

Some time before the war of the Revolution, after the British 
Parliament laid a duty on tea, the people combined together and 
refused to drink tea. 

As a substitute for tea, they used what was called Liberty tea 
in Plympton, which was made of a wild plant called cross-wort, 
which makes a tea resembling Bohea tea in taste. 

A Scotch pedlar, by the name of Frazier, had his tea taken 
from him in the south part of the town (now Carver) and burn- 
ed. 

In the early part of the war leather jockeys were frequently 
worn by young men and some others more advanced in age. 
The brim of the jockey was in an oval form and no brim over 
each ear. The brim was turned up to the crown before and be- 
hind and sometimes a tin plate in front with this inscription, 
''Liberty or Death." 

At a town meeting held May 23, 1776, the town voted unani- 
mously Independence of Great Britain. It seems that the town 
declared independence before Congress declared it. 

The military spirit in the town of Plympton was very active. 
Before the Revolutionary war there were four military compan- 
ies in Plympton with the following captains, viz : — Capt. John 
Bradford, Capt. Thomas Loring, Capt. William Atwood, and 
Capt. Nathaniel Shaw. These companies, comprising two hund- 
red and twenty-two men, belonged to the 1st Regiment, com- 
manded by Col. Theophilus Cotton, of Plymouth, and of which 
Seth Cushing, of Plympton, Avas 2nd Major, were ordered and 
marched to Marshfield, April 19, 1776, the very day on which 
the battles of Concord and Ijexington were fought. 

In the course of the war the town of Plympton furnished en- 
listments nearly equal in number to one third of its population, 
counting, of course, the several enlistments of the same soldier. 

Coming down to the war of the rebellion, we find the same 
spirit which animated the fathers, manifest in their sons. For 



—11— 

in obedience to orders received during the night of the 15tli of 
April, 1861, twenty-two men, members of Co. H, of the 3rd Regt. 
reported on Boston Conniion, April 16th and left Boston for 
Fortress Monroe, April 18. Of these twenty-two men only a 
remnant remains today. Six are living, one I cannot locate, 
while fifteen have passed on. Benjamin S. Atwood, Josiah E. 
Atwood, Henry F. Beaton, Jonathan C. Blanchard, Frederick S. 
Churchill, Alexander L. Cliurchill, Ezra B. Churchill, Albert A. 
Darling, William P. Eldridge, Henry K. Ellis, Daniel Foley, 
Josiah P. Hammond, John Jordan, Ira S. Holmes, Melvin G. 
Leach, Israel B. Phinney, Lucian L. Perkins, Warren Rickard, 
Edwin A. Wright, Rufus F. Wright, Oscar E. Washburn, John 

B. Wright. 

Other enlistments followed, so that we were enabled to fill all 
calls made by the President for troops, until from a population 
of about 800, 93 men actually performed service. The young 
men, who enlisted from this place, entered the service from pa- 
triotic motives ; they were not hired soldiers, but their country 
was in danger and they gave their services and many of them 
their lives in its defence. 

In looking over some old papers, a short time ago, I came up- 
on a letter written by one of these soldiers, addressed to the 
ladies, thanking them in behalf of the Company for a box of 
articles sent for Lheir comfort, breathing the true spirit of loyalty 
and expressing the hope that the war would soon be over, that 
they might return to home and friends. Alas ! his body rests 
in an unlaiown grave on Bull Run's battlefield. Sometime after 
the war the ladies formed an association for the purpose of rais- 
ing money to erect a suitable monument or memorial to the 
soldiers ; and after several years of labor they succeeded (the town 
granting the sum of $500), in erecting the beautiful monument 
which stands as an everlasting honor, not only to the soldiers 
who served their country, but to the ladies who labored so earn- 
estly to secure it. 

PUBLIC LIBRARY. 

There were some district association and private libraries 
owned in town, but no public library nntil 1891, when the town 
voted to accept the provisions of the law passed by the legislature, 
granting aid to small towns to establish Free Public Libraries. 
The first trustees chosen by the town were John Sherman, Mrs. 

C. M. S. Frazer, Charles H. Perkins. 



-12— 

Soon after this some of the young people formed an associa- 
tion for the purpose of raising money for a library building. 
Through their efforts and the munificence of Mrs. Pierce and 
others, they were enabled to furnish that gem of a building of 
which the town has the free use, and which now contains 
eighteen hundred volumes for circulation, beside books of ref- 
erence and unbound magazines in large numbers. 

BUSINESS. 

Time will not allow of any extended description of the busi- 
ness of the town which at one time was very considerable. Adam 
Wright came from Middleboro, where his house was burned by 
the Indians, the exact date we do not know ; but his eldest son, 
John Wright, was born in Plympton in 1680. He built a house 
on the northwesterly side of the second mill pond, up stream on 
Winnetuxet river and built a grist mill there. It was the first 
gristmill in PlAmipton. The waterwhoel with an upright shaft 
turned horizontally anrl the millstones turned just as fast as 
the wheel. It was what was called a gigmill, and was capable 
of grinding four or five bushels a day. It must have been like 
the mill where the boy went and becoming impatient waiting for 
his grist, told the miller he could eat the meal as fast as his milll 
could grind it. The miller asked him how long he could do so, 
and he replied "until I starved to death." 

There has been on this stream a forge, a rolling mill, shovel 
works, a cotton factory, a woolen factory, four grist mills and a 
number of saw mills. 

On a branch of Jones river a nail factory and later a tack 
factory. 

There was also, before the Pevolution, a furnace where can- 
non balls were made, afterwards removed to the south part of 
the town (now Carver), where the first hollow ware in this 
country was cast. 

From one cause and another these industries have departed and 
about all there is left is a cotton mill, a paper and wooden box 
manufactory and a few saw mills. 

Names of a few who have been prominent in the town and Old 
Colony : 

Pev. Isaac Cushman. the preacher for about thirty-six years. 

Pev. Jonathan Parker, whose lineal descendants have been 
prominently identified in the affairs of the town and Old Colony 
down to the present day. 



—13— 

Dr. Caleb Loring, the eminent physician; he bought, in 1703, 
the place now owned and occupied by Miss Lydia A, Wright, and- 
built the western half of tlie main house and the ell, the east- 
ern half having been built some years previous by Mr. Stephen- 
Bryant, and which is the oldest house now standing in town. 
He owned a wall pew in the old church, and had a door cut 
through the wall next to his peAV, so that when late at church 
from attending the sick, or when called out of church for that 
purpose, he could enter or retire without disturbing the congre- 
gation. 

"William Bradford, a lineal descendant of Governor "William 
Bradford, bom in Plympton in 1729, soon after 1750 removed to 
Bristol, E. I., where he served as Deputy Governor, Speaker of 
the House of Representatives and "U. S. Senator. 

Zabdiel Sampson, born in Pl3rmpton, in 1781, a graduate of 
Brown University, removed to Plymouth, chosen a representative 
to Congress 1816, later appointed Collector of the port of Pl3an- 
outh, where he died in office in 1828. 

Josiah Perkins, Town Cerk for forty years, and a deacon of 
the church nearly fifty-five years. 

Lewis Bradford, chosen Town Clerk in 1812, chosen a deacon 
of the church in 1814 and clerk about the same time, holding 
all these offices until his death, which occurred Aug. 10, 1851, 
by being thrown from a wagon in front of this church. 

Eev. Elijah Dexter and Eev. Henry Martyn Dexter, whose 
mother was the daughter of Nathaniel Morton, of Taunton, and 
a sister of Gov. Marcus Morton. 

Deacon Cephas Bumpus, though not a native, lived here many 
years and held offices of honor and trust. A representative in 
the Legislature; a man of sterling worth, and one to whom we 
boys in the Sunday school, where he was usually superintendent, 
looked up to with reverence, almost with awe. Our own Josiah 
Hammond, when a boy, while playing about his home one Sun- 
day morning, looked up and saw old Deacon Bumpus wending 
his way to church, ran into the house exclaiming to his parents, 
"Hide me ! hide me, God is coming !" 

Of the women perhaps I need not speak. We did not furnish 
a Betsey Eoss to make the flag, but we did contribute a Deborah 
Sampson who fought for two years as a common soldier in its 
defence, and whose deed of valor and heroism is inscribed on 
vonder tablet placed by that patriotic order The Daughters of the 
American Eevolution, on that imperishable boulder furnished 



—14— 

by the town. And scores of others no less worthy, no less pa- 
triotic, though they did not go to the front, sent their sons, 
their husbands, their brothers, while they minded affairs at 
home, refused to drink taxed tea, and wore linsey woolsey gar- 
ments that their country might be free. 

While we cannot boast of many great men, not many mighty, 
We will not forget that two of her sons sat in the Congress of 
the nation and helped in shaping the legislation of their country. 

That another, whose fame as a scholar, theologian and historic- 
al writer is not bounded by our continent, but has crossed the 
ocean and is held in high repute in other lands. 

That another by the faithful and thorough manner with which 
he has gathered up and recorded the many incidents of the times, 
and of the early settlers of the Old Colony, has made for him- 
self a monument that shall endure in the hearts of their de- 
scendants to the latest generation. 

Of others, who have won and are winning distinction at the 
bar, and in other professions as well as in the marts of business 
and of trade. 

For intelligence, for thrift and enterprise, yea, for patriotism, 
our ancestors in Plympton will compare favorably with other 
towns in the Commonwealth. 

And if in these later years we seem to have gone backward, 
it is from the same causes that have almost depopulated scores 
of the small towns of the state, the concentration of manufactures 
and trade in the cities and large villages, whither our people 
have gone with the hope that they may more easily win the 
battle of life. 

But we know that many of them while engaged in the whirl 
of business, are looking back with love and veneration to the old 
town that gave them birth and expect when the bustle and tur- 
moil of life are through to mingle their dust in its sacred soil. 







.^ >n. ^^ :f^ .J^^-'T'^o^ . (^^^^-^ ^p^^^-^^ ^^^i^^i/^. 







/^^^^/-Z- 



^^ 



014 079 438 7 



